Advice on next season

Next season I'm hoping to take things more seriously (I stalled a bit at the start of MOP and missed a good chunk of it) and although I'm aware they are getting rid of the upgrade system I was wondering if Blizzard are stripping all player current malevolent gear of their upgrade levels?

So my second question would be would it be better to finish off this season buying the rest of my malevolent gear or upgrading what I have already?

Upgrade what you have right now. I'm doing that, I too plan on being more serious this season, I played 2.2 first day of mop season but i then quit and made music the entire autumn/winter, so I didnt even gear up... xD

...I was wondering if Blizzard are stripping all player current malevolent gear of their upgrade levels?

That would be the logical thing to do from a competitive perspective, but from what they've said they seem to be fine with some players having an advantage from day one next season. From what I understand,

is the approximate hierarchy of gear (although I somehow doubt it's that clear-cut since s13 malev gear has more pvp power and resilience than even the new arena gear). If you just fill out a set of baseline conquest gear now, it'll be inferior to the honor gear next season. If you work on upgeading as much as you can, you'll apparently have a few pieces that are better than the honor gear and you can just replace your other pieces with the new honor gear.

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1." - Cranmer's Law

That would be the logical thing to do from a competitive perspective, but from what they've said they seem to be fine with some players having an advantage from day one next season. From what I understand,

is the approximate hierarchy of gear (although I somehow doubt it's that clear-cut since s13 malev gear has more pvp power and resilience than even the new arena gear). If you just fill out a set of baseline conquest gear now, it'll be inferior to the honor gear next season. If you work on upgeading as much as you can, you'll apparently have a few pieces that are better than the honor gear and you can just replace your other pieces with the new honor gear.

Didn't Blizz say the malev conquest gear from this season would have its item level lowered and made for honor next season? Wouldn't it be: S13 malev < S12 malev?

It looks as if the honor pieces next season will be a decent trade of raw stats for resilience and power. If you are still gearing up 483 pieces now, I would suggest doing as others have said and buying the 483 pieces and double upgrading those until you buy a new piece. The differences will be smaller in the cheap pieces like rings and necklaces, so I would go with the big pieces first. That means 3750 a piece for Chest/Helm/Legs, 3250 for Hands/Shoulder/Belt/Feet/Trinkets, and 2750 for Rings/Neck/Back/Wrist

It looks as if the honor pieces next season will be a decent trade of raw stats for resilience and power. If you are still gearing up 483 pieces now, I would suggest doing as others have said and buying the 483 pieces and double upgrading those until you buy a new piece. The differences will be smaller in the cheap pieces like rings and necklaces, so I would go with the big pieces first. That means 3750 a piece for Chest/Helm/Legs, 3250 for Hands/Shoulder/Belt/Feet/Trinkets, and 2750 for Rings/Neck/Back/Wrist

That would be the logical thing to do from a competitive perspective, but from what they've said they seem to be fine with some players having an advantage from day one next season. From what I understand,

is the approximate hierarchy of gear (although I somehow doubt it's that clear-cut since s13 malev gear has more pvp power and resilience than even the new arena gear). If you just fill out a set of baseline conquest gear now, it'll be inferior to the honor gear next season. If you work on upgeading as much as you can, you'll apparently have a few pieces that are better than the honor gear and you can just replace your other pieces with the new honor gear.

Problem with your logic is, season 13 malev will have a lower ilevel. So it has lower stats overall. The buff to resilence and power is just to somehow offset loosing those stats. It's most likely still going to be weaker then the current season 12 malev seeing as how many stats you lose (7 or 8 ilevel) and nowhere near upgraded season 12 malev.

In fact season 13 tyrannical only has about 3-4 levels on the season 12 upgraded malev.

Edit, oh btw I couldn't care less about the change then I currently do. But I am really looking forward to a competitive, even and fair playing field next season. Now excuse my while I prance around in my full upgraded season 12 gear with T2 weapons. Also isn't it kind of sad how we all will have to wait like 7 weeks to get our elite tyrannical gear?

Problem with your logic is, season 13 malev will have a lower ilevel. So it has lower stats overall. The buff to resilence and power is just to somehow offset loosing those stats. It's most likely still going to be weaker then the current season 12 malev seeing as how many stats you lose (7 or 8 ilevel) and nowhere near upgraded season 12 malev.

In fact season 13 tyrannical only has about 3-4 levels on the season 12 upgraded malev.

Edit, oh btw I couldn't care less about the change then I currently do. But I am really looking forward to a competitive, even and fair playing field next season. Now excuse my while I prance around in my full upgraded season 12 gear with T2 weapons. Also isn't it kind of sad how we all will have to wait like 7 weeks to get our elite tyrannical gear?

I was aware of the ilevel difference. You could still be right; I'm just trying to consider how valuable resilience can be. I guess interest in that gear will really vary from spec to spec, but I still think it's really stupid that this new honor gear is itemized such that it isn't part of a direct hierarchy. I can actually imagine serious resto shaman wearing that gear next season. That's kind of a minor concern compared to the lack of a real gear reset though.

I'm glad to see Cataclysm's retarded honor grind every season disappear, but I don't see why they can't set up a fair transition. Players that capped out their gear this season should definitely have no reason to chase upgrades through honor next season, but players starting fresh or picking up a new character should be able to grind up to that same level to have even footing at the start of the season.

My case in point: I want to play a new class next season, but if I do I'm going to be way behind for some time due to a huge gear discrepancy. Even after grinding up a full malev set, my weapon's only going to be 470 unless I start wintrading rbgs right now. Seems fair that I'll probably struggle to compete with 1500-rated shampoo drinkers with 498 weps from cheating in rbgs this season. I know it'll even out later on, but it really seems unfair that this season's weapons are better than next season's t1. They should be on par with honor gear.